Get it done.

Last week was a weird one at work. I was stressed to the max but I never seemed to really be moving in the forward direction. I had high hopes for productivity, but stuff just kept getting in the way. I went home every night defeated. Friday morning was the most ridiculous. I got to work early and shit hit the fan in all directions and I spent the rest of the morning until the kids arrived hiding in my friend's classroom. This week is going to be different.

source

How will I make sure this week is super productive?

1. Make a To Do list every morning for both work and home. Not allow myself to be distracted by anything until the list is complete. Last week there was no list. That was the fatal flaw.

2. Schedule exercise. Last week I ran on Sunday, and then didn't exercise again until Thursday. This does not work for my body or mind. Exercise will be on the list.

3. Take my vitamins. Everyone around me is sick and I REFUSE to spend another vacation sick. If I get sick next week it will be my third vacation in a row that I spend sick. Unacceptable.

4. Keep my eyes on the prize. Absolutely MUST get stuff done this week or I will not have fun on vacation because it will have to be done then. Unacceptable.

How do you keep yourself on track when you know you need to GET STUFF DONE?

Wine and Love- Full Moon Edition

I think most teachers out there know how kids are during the full moon. By that I mean, miserable. Actually I can't even blame the kiddos for the crazy week. I mean there was some out of character behavior, mostly a bit of crying from my tough guys, but mainly it was just me who was OFF all week. Stressed, but just not as productive as I normally am. Hopefully that is going to change tomorrow, and 100% next week because I have a lot to do before Sedona. Also I went for a run on Sunday, and then didn't have a chance to work out again until today. That's a bit too long for me... maybe that's why I've been so unproductive. Interesting.

Thanks to Nora for bringing Wine and Love to our lives.

Wine

Well I should start by saying that last week I ACTUALLY grabbed the bottle of wine on Tuesday night, and that didn't happen this week, so I guess that is a step in the right direction, no?

1. Okay, maybe this is a whole post topic, but sometimes I find myself (especially at work) having to basically "put my foot down" on something that I may have been inclined to be more flexible about because I don't want someone to take advantage of me. For example, this happens with kids all the time. I don't really mind if 1 child whispers to his or her partner when I am talking, but if I let them get away with it, no one will ever listen to me again. What annoys me though is when this translates to adult relationships. I know I'm a pretty flexible person and I think sometimes people take advantage of that and assume I will be the one who bends. I hate that I sometimes have to be like NO in order for people to listen.

2. I hate homework. I truly think it should be banned from elementary school entirely. I know some children need the extra practice in order to fully "get it" but I think almost all children would benefit from more time to explore other interests or maybe just freaking relax once in awhile. I don't assign homework in kindergarten so you may think this does not apply to me. However, one of my tutoring kiddos has spelling homework we do together every Tuesday. The past couple of weeks it has been serious torture, for both of us. This week is was so bad that I actually stopped at the grocery store on the way home for ice cream. True story.

3. The Super Bowl did not go my way. I'm really not a huge football person, but many people in my life are. Also, I don't know if I can explain it to people who are not from Boston, but there is just something about New York for us... Don't get me wrong, I enjoy New York City, and don't know enough about the rest of the state to make a judgment. But it just always feels like Boston is the underdog to New York in life (though they weren't supposedly in that game). I can only speak for myself to say this, but I'd rather lose to anyone but New York. Maybe you guys have your own cities/states that you feel this way about...

Love

1. I really love my photo class. I'll probably continue to write about my experiments and what I'm learning, even though not too many people felt the need to comment on it :)

2. I love our Blogger Book Club. It has forced me to read so many books I never would've picked up on my own, and 90% of the time I end up liking them so much more than I thought I would. I finished Rebecca today, and I have no idea how many starts to give it. I liked the story line, though I think the beginning could've moved much faster. On the other hand, I absolutely hated the writing style.

3. This year I said no to the ridiculousness of the 100th day of school. Usually it's a crazy big deal with parent volunteers and crazy amounts of prep and crazy kids. This year, we made awesome crowns I found on pinterest and I let the kids count 100 Legos and play with them. That's it. The kids had a great day and so did I. Win for everyone. I plan for Valentine's Day to be equally low key, though I should probably consider actually making or buying valentines...

Let it out- what are your wines and loves this week?

Photography Experiments #1

As you may remember, last summer I bought myself a DSLR camera. Since then I have let the camera do most of my work, either on automatic or on the sports mode that allows for my ever popular jumping shots. Last Thursday I took the first step towards knowing what the heck I am up to with this camera by starting a photography class with my friend Sarah.

The first class we talked about the 3 elements of exposure...

Shutter Speed: controls the amount of time the light is let in

Aperture: controls the size of the opening the light is coming in

ISO: controls the sensitivity to light

We also learned about something called bracketing, in which you can basically take 3 pictures at the same time where the camera will vary either the shutter speed, aperture or ISO. You can set exactly which thing you want to vary, and by how much. This is great because it allows for a little wiggle room. If you are a beginner like me, you might think you have the settings perfect but then when you take the photo, it's just a little off. With bracketing, you have 3 pictures so you can choose your favorite. I also think it's a cool way to see the affects that changing just 1 thing has.

Yesterday I headed outside to see if I could put some of what I learned to the test, so to speak :) Here are my experiments with bracketing:

Take 1- shutter 1/125, aperture f13.0, ISO 100

Take 2- shutter 1/125, aperture f18.0, ISO 100

Take 3- shutter 1/125, aperture f9.0, ISO 100

The first picture above is the middle aperture, and then in the second picture the opening was smaller, and in the third, the opening larger. Cool, huh? I like the first one the best, but I like the water color in the second one as well.

I also played with some bracketing on the shutter speed.

Take 1: shutter 1/640, aperture f5.6, ISO 100

Take 2: shutter 1/1250, aperture f5.6, ISO 100

Take 3: shutter 1/320, aperture f5.6, ISO 100

I'm only just starting to understand when/why I want to vary the shutter speed or aperture, but I do know that faster shutter speed will help me take those jumping shots, kids that don't sit still, and swimming ducks, which was the case on yesterday...

I could also slow the shutter speed if I want to blur movement, but I haven't tried that yet. As for the aperture, I was trying to use a low aperture to blur the background of my photos... I don't know, do you guys think it worked?

Ignore the weird shadows and the fact that Eric looks like he may want to kill me. Surprisingly he was not that annoyed with my random photo shoot so I'm not sure why it looks like he is :) We will just pretend this was after the Superbowl and that's why he looks so unimpressed.

Anyway, let's for letting me show off my experiments. There may be more of these to come :) I'll try to at least find new places so you won't get too bored of ducks and swans!

Do you find photography interesting to learn about? If not, tell me about one random hobby you have...

Disclaimer: I am a huge beginner when it comes to photography. If I ever something TOTALLY wrong in these posts, feel free to let me know!

Contradictions

I am a girl of many contradictions...



I love the dessert in Arizona and the oceans of Cape Cod.











I am a homebody, but if I'm at home until 3:00 on any given day I start to go a little stir crazy.



I am a morning person, but when my alarm wakes me up I groan every time. On weekends I wake up about 45 minutes later, happy as a clam.



My principal has always praised me for being prepared and organized for every lesson, yet I showed up for my first photography class on Thursday without a pen or anything to write on. Hmm, not so prepared!



I am a teacher, but I can't stand attending school myself (I think I'm burnt out).



I love my students, but the thought of my own children freaks me out.



I have endless patience for a child sounding out the word "dog" for the 36th time, but the person in front of me taking too long to order at Starbucks? MOVE IT!



I teach kindergarten but I can't stand "preschool" problems (ie. bathroom issues, crying about something ridiculous...)



I love to write but I don't think I ever want to be "a writer."



I love Boston and Cape Cod, but I love to travel more than anything else.



What are you contradictions?or What are you up to this weekend?
It's a sports weekend for me. I'm off to the Bruins Game today, and of course watching the Superbowl tomorrow :)

February Goals: Saving and Frozen Yogurt Eating

Just like that, it's February. I did pretty well with my January goals, so I'm going to try again in February. I'm excited about February for Eric's birthday and my third trip to Sedona! I'm also dreading other parts of the month, such as writing 22 report cards. I'm hoping wine will help me through this aspect. Maybe?

February Goals

1. Continue to run outside at least once per week. The weather has been so nice there is just no excuse for me not to continue running outside at least once a week. I already started this today when it was close to 60 degrees outside. February, what?!

2. Read 4 books. Last month I read 5 books, and this month I'll be on vacation so I was tempted to go for 5 this month, but my vacation will be with Eric's family so I'm not sure if I'll get as much reading done as I normally do. So far the only book on my list to read this month is Rebecca for our Blogger book club. Anyone have any other recommendations for me?

3. Buff up Summer 2012 savings fund. I have an ING account which means I can name my accounts. I still had not renamed my "honeymoon fund" so I just last week changed it to "Summer 2012." I don't want to be a slave to tutoring like I was last summer, and I want to be able to go to Amber's wedding in Canada so... I need to start saving more, right now. It's going to be a rough month for it because I am going away AND I will lose tutoring money that week, so I've set a goal and let's hope I can meet it.

4. Blog at least 3 times per week, maybe more. I've been a little inconsistent on the blogging recently, so I'm hoping I can keep up with it a little better this month. I also have to write report cards which is going to take a lot of typing outside of school, so I may need some extra motivation to take a break and type something I want to write about!

5. Make frozen yogurt with my ice cream maker. We all know I will do pretty much anything for frozen yogurt. On the coldest day of January I forced Eric to drive 25 minutes with me to a frozen yogurt place. Yeah, I need help. Since I got my ice cream maker I have only made ice cream ONCE. I need to make some fro yo. Soon. It might involve this recipe.

What do you hope to accomplish this month? Anything you are looking forward to?

January Highlights and Goals Recap

January is already over and I'm left feeling like I almost always do, it went by fast in some ways, and slow it others. The highlights of my month were definitely my two trips to Katie's house at the Cape, first with Eric and Adam and then our girls weekend. Even though the weather went from 60 degrees and sunny to snowbound between the two trips, the feeling of complete and total relaxation was the same on both trips. I love you Cape Cod.

This year I decided to do monthly instead of yearly goals! :) Here is a look at how I did with my January goals:

1. Read 4 books. Check! I actually read 5 books this month, wahoo! I was very into a couple of my books which helped and also Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas I literally read in 2 weeknights, which is pretty much unheard of in my world. Here is a list of books I read in January:

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

How to be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway

The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman

I recommend all of these books, but my favorite was Saving CeeCee Honeycutt. I loved CeeCee and the characters she met. Also cool, the author, Beth Hoffman, commented on my blog to thank me for recommending her book. Officially star struck.

2. Get to yoga 4 times. Nope. But I got to yoga 3 times, so it's not a total fail. I actually was right on a roll with one time per week until I lost all motivation last week because I realized my pass never expires and then it seemed like the less I went to yoga the less I would have to pay for a new pass. Irrational, I know.

3. Run outside at least once a week. Check. Well, as long as you allow that I ran outside every week except one, but then made up for it by running twice the next week? Sorry, I'm a fair weather runner, I admit it. I'll never be as hardcore as Amber...

4. Donate 2 full bags of clothes to Good Will. Check Plus. This month I donated FOUR trash bags filled with clothes to Good Will as well as a pretty large box of books. I'm already loving life without the extra clutter and I'm sure my tax refund next year will thank me as well. I did have to part with some sentimental value clothing, but it was definitely worn! Still sad though...

Okay fine, I have the Australia one in another color that I kept... and haven't worn in several years once I learned how washing it makes it fall apart. I swear I'm not a hoarder.

5. Clean the inside of my car. Check. I cleaned my car a few weeks ago and I've managed to keep things relatively clean since that. The only major mess incident occurred coming out of tutoring one morning. I was carrying a plastic box that I keep lots of tutoring supplies in like pencils, glue, scissors, bingo chips, sound cards and picture cards and BAM the whole thing just exploded open and went all over the sidewalk on an extremely windy day. I managed to get up most of the stuff before it blew away but in my rush to get OUT OF THERE and get to work I did throw a lot of it aimlessly into my car. I think most of it is back in the original plastic box though. Thank goodness. Yes, this is something you would've laughed at had you witnessed it. Don't lie.

6. Try something new. Check. Well, I have to admit my plan was to do something really COOL and new this month, but instead I ended up trying 3 new restaurants. I do love me a good restaurant, so I can't complain. I tried a Mexican restaurant in the Cape called Anejo. I got pretty awesome lobster spring rolls. It was like Cape Cod seafood with a Mexican twist. I also tried an offshoot of my favorite restaurant from Burlington VT called Flatbread Company in Burlington, MA! They serve local beer and delicious pizzas, what more could you ask for?

Well, you could ask for an amazing brunch spot, also in the suburbs! Eric and I tried a restaurant called Tryst in Arlington for brunch one random Sunday morning. It was a little awkward to eat at a bar at 11 am on a Sunday (we should've made a reservation) but one bite of this french toast and I was over it. Trying new things is the best.

January was a pretty sweet month. I hope the rest of 2012 is even better. I'll be back tomorrow with my February goals.

Did you try anything new in January? How about meet any goals?

Peapod Delivery: The Pros and Cons

Early in January a little surprise arrived in our mailbox:

60 days of free grocery delivery and $20 off my groceries!? For those of you who don't know, Peapod is a grocery delivery service that is part of Stop and Shop. Eric and I have considered using it before but decided we didn't want to pay the delivery fee when we are perfectly capable of going to the grocery store on our own. Enter free delivery and we are sold on trying it!



I thought I'd blog about the pros and cons of my experience in case any of you are considering the world of grocery delivery. I was not asked to do this by Peapod or compensated in any way, just FYI.

Pros:

Time Saved. It probably goes without saying that grocery delivery will save you time. Eric and I always create a list every week, so we use that time to create our order. Since we have a Stop and Shop card our order is saved from week to week so unless we are buying something completely new, it's a pretty quick process to order. Eric can do it on his phone so we don't even have to be at a computer to do it. We usually have our order delivered on Sunday in a 2 hour window. You can actually save money by choosing a large time window but we haven't done that yet because we are still on free delivery. We have now had groceries delivered 4 times, and 3/4 times they have come in the first hour of the two hour window, once they were late because of snow but we were called ahead of time.

Grocery Dread Gone. Oh, so I'm the only one who dreads the grocery store? Well, I do! When Eric and I can manage to get there after dinner on a Friday or Saturday it's not too terrible, but otherwise we basically always have to go at prime time and that means navigating your cart around just about everyone else in the world. I am just not a fan of this hour of my week and I'm happy to have it back.

Money Saved. Even if we were paying the delivery fee, Eric and I have saved a lot of money ordering online. There are two major reasons why Peadpod can actually save you money. The first is that it completely eliminates any impulse purchases since you really have no choice but to stick to the list! The other reason is that you can actually see how much you are spending before you buy it. This means you could potentially notice you are way over budget and get rid of things you don't really need. I haven't had to do this yet but I have had many trips to the actual grocery store where I probably would've done this if given the option. Eric and I have probably saved about an average of $15-20 per trip, depending on how much we needed that week. Even this week we got Olive Oil which is probably the most expensive thing we buy, and our order was still cheaper than usual.

Coupons. You can still use coupons when you order with Peapod and I personally think it is easier. I am usually shuffling through my purse frantically looking for coupons during the trip so that I can see if I need to buy 3 boxes of Cheerios or 4 and then again at the register so I can actually use the coupons. So much easier to do in the comforts of my home and then I can just give the coupons at delivery and they credit your account.

Gas Points: One of the major reasons Eric and I stop at Stop and Shop is because we get gas points that allow Eric to get really good deals at Shell gas stations. Peapod orders count for gas points, so it's another easy way to save money.

Cons:

Produce Risk: One of our fears about Peapod was that we would not be able to pick out our own produce. Our first experience with Peapod left us with a pretty ridiculous red pepper that made us think our fears were right on target! Luckily since then, most of our produce has been great. Still there is something to be said for picking out your own produce, since no one will ever care quite as much as you do.

Delivery Fee: When you don't have free delivery, it does cost $6.95 for delivery. Plus I always feel obligated to give the guy some sort of tip...

Selection: During our first order we ordered a couple of things that we buy weekly in our local Stop and Shop but they did not have in the Peapod warehouse including low sodium taco seasoning and low sodium chicken broth. For the taco seasoning they gave us a different brand with regular sodium and for the chicken broth we were given no replacement. We later learned that you can set up your preferences for out of stock items, but regardless you are still ending up without what you need, or with something different you may or may not want. Like many of the glitches this is something Eric and I have basically solved by ordering different brands or having a replacement selection available that we like as much. Still though, it can be annoying if it comes as a surprise and you were planning to make tacos that night and bam, there is no taco seasoning. Of course if you are at the grocery store they also may be out of stock but since you are there you can either decide to change your meal completely or choose a replacement you actually want. I personally think that they should tell you at the time of your order if it's an item they don't typically stock, or send you a text message while you can still make updates to your order. That's probably a lot to ask though :)

So, will Eric and I continue to use Peapod after our free delivery runs out?

I actually think we probably will. Even with the delivery fee and tip, we are still saving a couple of dollars a week and we are saving time, which of course equals money. Plus, Eric and I are exposed to a lot of germs in the winter as it is, so not going to the grocery store is probably appreciated by our immune system. Plus, sometimes I just feel like my life is taken over by errands and it's nice to have one done for me.

We do have a grocery store near us that sells many items for cheaper than Stop and Shop. I always avoid it because it is a CRAZY busy place that puts me in an immediate bad mood. However, I am hoping if I can avoid a weekly trip, I can maybe do a monthly trip to the dreaded grocery store for a few items like paper towels, greek yogurt etc that are significantly cheaper there. This will hopefully save us even more on our weekly orders.

Have you ever tried grocery delivery? Would you?